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thought passes by, another thought passes by, then another. Each single thought is atomic; it is not related to the other, there is no bridge. Mm? -- they flick: one thought gone, another, another, they go on. The ego is the idea that they are joined together, that there is a continuity, that there is a substance behind them.
Let me tell you one famous story of a buddhist monk -- his name was Nagsena....
A king had invited him to come to his palace so he came, but he said to the messenger, 'Tell the king that because he has invited me I will come, but in fact there is nobody there inside me. Tell him that Nagsena exists not! Of course he has invited me so I will come, but tell him this much -- that there is no Nagsena to come.'
The king was very puzzled -- this was stupid or absurd or mad! If there were no nagsena, then who was going to come? But he waited; then Nagsena came. He came in the chariot of the king -- the king had sent his chariot, a golden chariot with many horses.
The king came to the gate, received Nagsena and said, 'I welcome you, but I'm puzzled. Since that day the messenger came back I have been thinking and thinking. What do you mean -- that there is no Nagsena? Then who has come?'
And Nagsena said, 'Yes, coming is there, going is there, but there is no Nagsena. The dance is there but there is no dancer... the running is there but there is no runner.'
The king said, 'I cannot understand these puzzles -- I am a practical man. Please be practical, don't talk in abstract things! How can there be running without a runner and how can there be dance without a dancer?'
So Nagsena said, 'Look at your chariot. If we take the horses away, are the horses the chariot?'
The king said, 'No -- horses are horses; they are not the chariot.'
And Nagsena said, 'If we take the wheels of the chariot away, are the wheels the chariot?'.
And the king said, 'No, the wheels are wheels; they are not the chariot!'
In this way Nagsena went on. He said, 'If we take this away and that away and that away, and nothing is the chariot, the whole chariot disappears!' Then he said, 'Now where is the chariot?
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